Priest shortages are nothing new! Look what happened to St. Augustine in 391 A.D.

From Augustine and his World by Andrew Knowles and Pachomios Penkett (InterVarsity Press, 2004):

"In an age when suitable individuals were seized and compelled into ordination by the acclamation of local congregations, Augustine already knew to beware of ecclesiastical ambush, as he remembered what had happened to Ambrose in Milan. Augustine began to avoid visiting places that were without a priest, or where the bishopric was vacant, in case he was also called...

"...In 391 he visited [the town of] Hippo Regius, partly to visit a Christian friend who was a member of the imperial secret police; but also with the idea of establishing another monastery. While there, he was suddenly called by the local church to be its priest.

"The elderly bishop of Hippo, Valerius, was a Greek-speaker who was unable to understand the Punic language of his flock. He was also ineffective against the Manichean presence in Hippo...and the Donatist schismatics... Valerius needed a gifted assistant with immediate effect -- and there, walking into his church, was Augustine! Like Elijah calling Elisha, he gave the younger man little room for refusal. Augustine was acclaimed by the congregation as God's choice and hauled before the bishop for ordination there and then."

The book goes on to describe Augustine's account of how he wept at his ordination, out of disdain for the parishioners, and not from joy. He obviously rose to the occasion, however, because he remained in Hippo for the next 40 years, debating heretics, battling superstition, and lifting people to greater holiness. And, although he was born in the town of Thagaste, we now know him as St. Augustine of Hippo.